Ellen Seidler began her career in journalism at ABC News in New York as an assignment editor, and later joined KRON-TV in San Francisco as a photojournalist and editor. She served as professor of Fine & Media Arts at Contra Costa College for the past 22 years teaching digital film and tv production classes and has served as a lecturer in Digital Media at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and taught workshops for the Knight Digital Media Center at Berkeley.
Over the past two decades, she has also produced/directed/ and worked as a cinematographer on a variety of independent film and documentary projects. Her directing credits include the award-winning documentary “Fighting for Our Lives-Facing AIDS in San Francisco” and the indie feature “And Then Came Lola” (co-directed/produced with Megan Siler) which screened in LGBT film festivals throughout the world.
Following the release of “And Then Came Lola” in 2010 Seidler began to speak out on the issue of online piracy’s link to profits (via advertising) and created a blog www.popuppirates.com documenting online piracy’s link to profit (via advertising revenue) and its negative impact on content creators. She has been credited with bringing the issue of ad-sponsored piracy to the fore.
Seidler continues to blog at www.voxindindie.org exploring issues surrounding piracy, online copyright and content creation. She also provides anti-piracy consulting services to independent film producers and distributors.
Seidler is a member of the Advisory Board for the Digital Citizens Alliance and given presentations on piracy and copyright issues at Canadian Music Week, Stanford, UC Davis Law schools and George Mason’s (CPIP) Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property. Her anti-piracy efforts have been covered by a variety of news outlets including NPR, Fortune Magazine, and Backstage.
Seidler received her B.A. in fine arts from Harvard University, and her M.A. in journalism from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. She currently makes her home in Vancouver, B.C.